Where did the Ceska come from?

Today’s trial day was to uncover the provenance of the silenced Ceska pistol used by the NSU. However, the only witness to testify today was a gun shop owner from Switzerland who had sold the gun in 1996. He testified that he had sold one silenced Ceska and one Ceska without silence via mail. The buyer had provided him with an official permit to buy a gun and a copy of his identification. The witness stated that the silenced Ceska was a relatively rare model, but that he had sold a number of such guns.

Two additional witnesses, the original buyer of the NSU Ceska and the person presumed to have sold it on to Germany, did not appear in court. The court will now try to have them testify via video-link. The second of the two men has already announced that he will invoke the privilege against self-incrimination and refuse to testify.

Parties also watched a video from a surveillance camera in the Keupstraße in Cologne, this time with somewhat enhanced picture quality, in order to check whether a woman seen on that video shortly before the bombing attack was Beate Zschäpe. The police officers who had worked on the video stated that the woman was not Zschäpe, and in fact there was no resemblance of Zschäpe to the woman in the video.

Angelika Lex, victim’s counsel for the widow of Theodoros Boulgarides, made a statement commenting on yesterday’s testimony of the police officer who had led the investigations in the Boulgarides murder case. Her statement is documented (in German) here.